Webometrics of Iranian Universities Dominated by the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology

Abstract

This research aimed to investigate visibility, web impact factor (WIF), and the collaboration rate of the websites of the Iranian universities under coverage of Science, Research and Technology Ministry, using an analysis of the various links among these websites and webometrics. From all 70 websites belonging to the Iranian universities, due to some technical problems, only 69 ones were reviewed through Yahoo, in a period of one month (October 6 – November 5, 2008). These were decreased to 52 websites in analysing co-links and identifying hi-frequency websites. The results indicated that Tehran, Payame Nour and Elmosanat websites were the most visited sites. The websites of Mohaghegh Ardabili, Industrial Jondi Shapoor and Zabol Universities had the most WIF and RWIF. In-link analysis results showed that the investigated websites had collaborated in 6 clusters, and a multidimensional scale illustrated the collaboration of these websites in 5 clusters.

Keywords

• Iranian university websites
• website analysis
• webometrics
• web impact factor (WIF)
• visibility
• link analysis